When asked about a text-based social network codenamed P92, Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, admitted there is a project (no further details). He then went on to say that he thinks Twitter has not lived up to its full potential and believes that is why Elon Musk bought Twitter. One month later, Threads was launched, and many consider it to be Twitter’s killer. But is it? That's what we are about to find out. 

The Downfall of Twitter

Twitter end users never had a problem with the social network until Elon Musk decided to stir the waters with a tweet that suggested he was going to acquire it. This came a few weeks after Musk became the largest shareholder of the social network with a stake valued at over $2 billion. In his letter to the company, Musk said, 

"I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy."

He then offered to buy the company for 54.20 per share in cash and planned to take it private because he believed that free speech could not thrive otherwise. Although there was a lot of back and forth, on April 25th, 2022, his offer was accepted, and thus began the whole Twitter saga. To say that Twitter’s acquisition process was tumultuous would be an understatement. But Finally, on October 28 2022 the deal was completed. Elon Musk now owned Twitter and could do with it as he pleased. In a typical Musk style, his approach to how Twitter should be run was radical and very controversial. Musk fired Twitter's top execs and laid off half of the company’s workforce. But this was the business side of things that didn’t have a direct impact on the end users. 

Then came the revamp Musk had promised. First, he changed the subscription service such that any user could be verified for a monthly fee of $8. This was met with so much criticism, especially from Twitter users who were concerned about the fact that anyone could be anyone on the new Twitter. Musk warned that anyone who tried to impersonate will be blocked, and he meant it. But that didn’t help dissipate the tension that was already building among Twitter users. Frequent outages plagued the platform and third-party developers were frustrated with the new Twitter API which of course they had to pay heavily for. As if that wasn’t enough, on the 1st of July, Musk announced new Twitter restrictions on how many tweets could be read by each user type in a day. 

Verified Twitter users were limited to 6000 posts/day, unverified users could read only 600 posts/day while newly verified users were capped at 300 posts/day. As one would expect, this news was met with severe backlash forcing Musk to readjust his stance on the limits, twice, finally settling on 10,000 posts/day for verified users, 1000 for unverified users, and 500 for newly verified users. Of course, this number still didn’t cut it for most Twitter users who consume so many posts daily. But at this point, there was nothing that could be done. I mean, this is Twitter, the most popular text-based social media platform in the world. Where else are people going to turn to? For several years, Twitter had enjoyed the top spot with no competition and perhaps it would have remained at the top spot for many more years had Elon Musk not taken over the platform and unleashed a series of reforms that caused the platform to nose-dive creating the perfect opportunity for a new competitor to emerge.

Here Come Threads - The Twitter Killer?

Threads was launched on July 5th and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Whether the platform was ready for launch or not is a discussion for another day but all aggrieved Twitter users can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Threads became the fastest-growing app in history with more than 100 million users within 5 days of its launch, outdoing ChatGpt which achieved the same number of downloads in two months. Two hours after launch, Threads had already garnered over two million signups. Five hours after launch the number of signups had already doubled to over five million and by the next day, Threads already had 30 million signups. Major brands and influencers flocked to the platform despite it being called “Twitter’s clone.” Research by websiteplanet revealed some interesting details about Threads. According to the study, brands were already seeing significantly more engagement on Threads compared to Twitter. 

Meta Vs Twitter: Two social media giants lock horns

Elon Musk wasn’t just going to sit still and watch Zuckerberg’s “Thread” all over his 44 billion dollar acquisition. So it didn’t come as a surprise when Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro sent a letter to Zuckerberg claiming that Meta was in the wrong for;

“systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property”.

He further claimed that Meta had hired dozens of former Twitter staff with access to Twitter's Trade secrets and other confidential information. Spiro alluded that Meta had used this information to build their new app. But Meta’s communication director Andy Stone responded to Spiro’s claim by saying that;

“To be clear: No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that’s just not a thing.” 

Musk intends to sue Meta. According to him, “Competition is fine but cheating is not.” This is not the first time Musk and Zuckerberg will be locking horns together. Their rivalry has been going on for a while and even escalated to a point where Musk tweeted that he is up for a cage fight with Zuckerberg. 

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This might have been all fun and games until Zuckerberg struck the first blow with the launch of Threads. Perhaps we all got it wrong. This was never going to be a physical match, but a corporate match between the tech billionaires. Either way, the people stand to gain from this rivalry because competition is good for both companies. It will inspire innovation and eliminate the god complex that Elon Musk had become known for since he took over Twitter. 

Will Threads Overtake Twitter?

To answer the question, will Threads overtake Twitter? Frankly, it is still early to tell. Yes, Threads enjoyed massive attention in the first few weeks of its launch, but that is only because Twitter users were fed up with the latest changes that the company was making. In light of the fact that a rival has emerged, Twitter’s executives may become more cautious and attentive to the demands of its user base rather than arrogantly force changes down their throats.

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